Selected quad for the lemma: water_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
water_n	boil_v	salt_n	vinegar_n	3,344	5	10.6211	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32843	Britannia Baconica: or, The natural rarities of England, Scotland, & Wales. According as they are to be found in every shire. Historically related, according to the precepts of the Lord Bacon; methodically digested; and the causes of may of them philosophically attempted. With observations upon them, and deductions from them, whereby divers secrets in nature are discovered, and some things hitherto reckoned prodigies, are fain to confess the cause whence they proceed. Usefull for all ingenious men of what profession of quality soever. / By J. Childrey.	Childrey, J. (Joshua), 1623-1670.	1662 (1662)	Wing C3870; ESTC R20076	95,453	214

that severall springs and rivulets were quite dryed up by reason of the precedent drought which raged most in 1651 52 and 53. As the head of the stoure that riseth near Elham in Kent and runs through Canterbury was dry for some miles space and the like happened to the stream that crosseth the Road way between Sittingborn and Cantsrbury at Ospring near Feversham which at other times ran with a plentifull current but then wholly failed like the Brooks in Israel in the days of Ahab The Stonehenge upon Salisbury plain in this shire is counted the most admirable rarity that our Island affords It is in this manner There are in a pit great stones standing upright Some being 28 foot high and 7 foot broad in three ranks round like a Crown and overthwart them are laid others with tenants and Mortises Now the great wonder and question among the learned is how these stones came hither For say they it is not likely that they were ab initio placed here by the God of nature because the whole Country round for some miles affords not a stone hardly either great or smal And they seem too vast to be brought hither by waggon or the like carriages The learned Cambden therefore thinks that they were made there by art of pure sand and some unctuous cement even as those also in Yorkshire because anciently there was such an art of making stone And Pliny saith that the dust of Puteoli Puzzele being laid in water becometh stone presently and that there were Cesterns at Rome made of digged sand and lime which were so firm and hard that they seemed stone But notwithstanding the authority of this great Scholar Iam clearly of opinion that they are naturall stones and placed there ab initio Then which I think nothing is plainer For upon the Downs between Marleborough and Aubury not above 20 miles from Stonehenge which Downs are but a continuation or rather a part of Salisbury plain differing nothing from it but in the un-evenness are to be found abundance of great stones commonly called by the Country thereabout the Gray Weathers and at Aubury in an Orchard there are halfe a dozen or halfe a score stones little inferiour to the Stonehenge for hugeness some standing upright like the Sonehenge others lying flat on the ground And the Country here like that about the Stonehenge affords not a stone beside So that unless we wil have all these stones to be artificiall wee must grant the Stonehenge to be natural Now whereas this unstoniness of the Country about which we speak of seems to some a strong objection against the naturalness of the stones it is on the contrary if duly considered a great argument for it For what can be more probable then that Nature could not provide her selfe otherwise of Lapidifick matter enough to make these huge stones of but by robbing the circumjacent parts The more of that matter here the less hereabouts because nature wanting timber would fetch it nearest hand I have no more to add touching the Stonehenge but that near it mens bones are digged up many times The reason of which is because it was the ancient burying place for the Kings of the Britans About Sapworth near Sharstan are found abundance of stones somewhat like Cockles yet so apparently differing from their shape that by the very sight of them one may plainly see that they never were true Cockles as some do believe But of these I shall speak more in Gloncestershire In the Parish of Luckingten in the edge of this Shire formerly mentioned is a well called Hancacks-well the waten whereof is said to be very cold in Summer and Warm in Winter and is commended as a fingalar water for the eyes HANTSHIRE AT Portsmouth in this shire they boile Salt out of salt-Salt-water which is our bay-Bay-Salt being of a pale or greenish colour and by boiling it again with an art the have they make it exceeding white This shire is very plentifull for all sorts of commodities especially for Kerfies and Iron Out of the walls of Silcester in this shire a decayed Town grow huge Oaks of ten loadsapiece saith Stow that seem to grow to the very stones spreading both their tops and their roots exceedingly Also Near this Town of Silcester though the land be fruitful enough generally yet in some places as it were by Beds the Soil is nothing near so fruitful as elsewhere which makes men think that along these Beds the streets of the old town formerly went And which is observable these unfertile beds do intersect each other like streets The conjecture is not unlikely because the like is reported of the streets of old Richborough by Sandwich in Kent The Isle of Wight is a wholesom air ' and the dwellers very aged It affords plenty of Corn and the best Wool next to that of Lemster and Cotswald As also plenty of Conies Hares Pheasants Partridges c. Our Chroniclers tel us that in the year 1176. in the Ifle of Wight it rained a shower of blood for two hours together At Wickham in this Shire are Medicinal Waters It is reported that about Portsmouth is a race of small Dogs like Beagles that they use there to hunt Moles with which they hunt as their proper natural Game BERKSHIRE AT Finchamstead in this Shire in the yeare 1100 as Writers say a Well boiled up with streams of blood and continued so 15. dayes together whose Waters madered all others where they came A story not incredible though very strange because we read of several the like stories touching Fountains in other Countreys in Authors of good credit In this Shire is one of the fruitful Vales of England for Corn called the Vale of White Horse About the year 1348. saith Cambden being presently after the Conjunction of Saturn Mars in Capricorn was a very great Plague over all Europe and then was Wallingford being a bigger and more confiderable Town then now it is almost dis-peopled with it The Conjunction of Saturn and Mars that Cambden means was 1342. 43. in February and it happened in 25. degrees of Capricorn but in my opinion it ushered its pretended effect at too large a distance to entitle it self the cause of it Nor can I believe so small a cause could produce so great an effect conjunctions of Saturn and Mars happening constantly every two years and sometimes though very rarely three of them happening in one year as in the year 1640. in the last face of Libra and if Pitatus have calculated right in the yeare 1542. in the first face of the pestilent sign Virgo without any such extraordinary effects succeeding them And which is as observable as any thing in the yeare 1578. was a Conjunction of Saturn and Mars in 23. deg of Capricorn but two degrees short of the Conjunction 1342. and yet the following years were not guilty of any extravagant Mortalities Therefore I conceive it will not be amiss to ascribe rather

were fallen into it some part of them ash some part of them stone Worcestershire THis is a very pleasant County and fertile especially the vale of Evesham In some parts of it are many Salt Pits and Salt Springs It affords store of excellent Cheese The hedge-rows and high-ways are beset with Pear-trees of which they make Perry a very pleasant drink but generally very cold and windy But saith Cambden although the Pears be in such huge abundance yet are they not so pleasing to the tast Which if it be true I much wonder at it For certainly there is much reason to believe that where fruit trees are planted in hedgerows and highways their fruit should be better rellishred then fruit of the same kind planted in Orchards within the shade of other trees because those in hedgerows lye more open to the Sun and that heat that must concoct them to give them their true relish though on the other side I deny not that they are more subject to bsasting winds The Seavern here affords great store of fresh water Lampreyes they are saith Cambden like Eeles slippery and blackish but under their bellies something blew they have no gills but let in the water at seven holes on each side of their throat in the Spring they are sweetest and most etable for in Summer the inner nerve which serves them instead of a backbone waxeth hard The Italians make a delicate dish of them taking a Lamprey and killing it in Malmesey they close the mouth with a Nutmeg and fill all the holes with as many cloves then they roll it up and put 〈◊〉 Nut-kernels stamped crums of bread oyle Malmesey and Spices to it and so they boile it with great care and then turn it over a soft gentle fire of Coals in a frying pan The reason why Seavern affords Lampreys I conceive is its muddiness the Lamprey being a kind of Eele that breeds and delights in mire Other fish as is before said Seavern breeds not so plentifully because as men thrive best in clear air so sish in clear water gross air choaking the one and thick water the other At Droitwich are three Fountains of Salt water divided by a little Brook of fresh water passing between by the boiling of which Salt water they make pure white Salt Gervase of Tilbury an Historian not rashly to be credited saith that these salt Springs are most salt between Christmas and Midsummer and that the rest of the year they are somewhat fresh and not so good to make Salt of and that when the Salt water is run sufficiently for the use of the Country the Springs do scarce overflow to any wast and that at the greatestSaltness of it it is not allayed by the nearness of the fresh water to it and lastly that it is found no where near the Sea Cambden doubts the truth of some of these affirmations but of which he saith not Onely he saith that the Salt is made from Midsummer to Midwinter which is quite contrary to Gervase Indeed if there be any difference in the saltness of these waters in severall times of the year they should I think be fresher from Christmas to Midsummer because that half year all Springs but land Springs are highest run most plentifully by reason of the great wet season immediately foregoing which must therefore more dilute the salt And on the contrary the Springs between Midsummer and Christmas must be the lower because of the drought just preceding I have heard Masons in Kent that used to dig wells say that the Springs that feed their wells are lowest about Alhollantide and highest between Easter and Whitsuntide for the very same reason I could wish some ingenuous native would bestow upon us the perfect History of these Salt Springs in Worcestershire and Cheshire Some Philosophers trouble themselvs much about the cause of the Saltness of the Sea I think it needs not so much puzzle and ado If there bee salt Springs that run continually into the Sea and no part of the saltness of the water but that which is meer fresh ascend in vapour at the Suns call why should not the Sea be and continue salt There would rather be more fear lest the Sea should grow salter and salter by these Springs continually running into it but that the Salinae on severall shores of the world do rob it every day besides other losses it sustains and escapes that it makes through private passages in the earth There is a report of a medicinall Water found out lately about Eckington-Bridge about 7 miles from Worcester Staffordshire THe air of this shireis very healthfull yet in the North parts and Moreland it is very sharp the wind blowing cold and the snow lying long It affordeth good store of Albaster Iron Pit-Coale Which is thought to be the Lapis Obsidianus of the Ancients if it be at all in England for it is hard bright light and easie to be cloven in flakes and being once kindled it burns away very quickly And Fish whereof the River of Trent is full The meadows of this shire are so moistned withstreams and rivers runningby them that they look green in the middle of winter In Pensneth Chase is a Coal-Pit which saith Cambden was set on fire by a Candle through the negligence of a digger the smoak of it is commonly seen and sometimes the flame In this shire there runs a hill a long and so through the middle of England as far as Scotland like the Apennine in Italy In this shire they manuretheir land with Lime-stone The people about Wotton by Wolverhil in Moreland observe that when the wind sets West it always produces rain but the East and South wind which elsewhere brew and bring rain here bring fair weather unless the wind turn from the West into the South and this they ascribe to the nearness of the Irish Seas This observation I fear is somewhat imperfect and should be driven a little further by men able to make observation If the River Dove overflow its banks and run into the adjoyning meadows in Aprill it makes them extream fruitfull The reason of this is plain enough without further enquiry Indeed some Rivers overflowing their banks enrich more and others less according to the fatness or hungryness of their water The River Dove uses to rise extreamly within twelve hours space but it will within the space of twelve hours return again within its banks but Trent being once up and over its banks flows over the fields four or five days together ere the supersluous waters can get away Of this wee have given an account already speaking of the Thames and Seavern The little River Hans runs under ground for three miles together Cambden saith that Necham speaks of a Lake in Staffordshire but where it is he cannot tell that foreshews things to come by its roaring and no wild beast will enter into it but he thinks it is but a Fable And Gervase of Tilbury tells us of

been quick Lime and by degrees the water grew so very hot that it would quickly have boiled an Egge Now seeing that this Chalk is found near the Bath I conoeive it not unlikely that it is this that heats the bath-Bath-water I know very well that Authors generally attribute the heat of Baths to Sulphur or Bitumen Nevertheless though it cannot be denyed that there is a great quantity of Bitumen and Sulphur found in these Springs and the cure of Scabbiness Ulcers Trembling the Palsey and the like diseases doth evince that the Baths are plentifully impregnated with them yet I doubt whether either of them hath any thing of a fermentative power in them to heat water seeing both of them want acidity the efficient cause of fermentation and neither of them being put into water can produce any fermentation or heat And since their consistance is clammy and viseid especially that of Bitumen that water cannot readily insinuate it self into the minute particles of them they must needs be unfit for any such fermentation The contrary of which will follow upon the crumbling and incoherent consistence of this Chalk The place where this Fossile was found is an earth porous like a spunge so that it planly appears to be as it were the flos or excriscence of fermenting Minerall working up out of the Earth with those Spirits that cause the fermentation But what to determine and say positively on this dark riddle I know not and therefore humbly submit it to your judgement returning you most cordial thanks c. W. and H. Sir Your most obliged servant Ed. Meara Mendip-Hills in this shire afford great abundance of Lead I have heard it reported that the Lead Ore in these hills is found by a very strange means There are men they say that go up and down upon the hils with forked hazle-wands in their hands near the places where they suspect the Ore to be And the nature of the wands is that when they pass over a place where Ore is they bend and draw down to the Earth toward the Ore of their own accord and so they Ore is found They say likewise that any hazle wand wil not do it but that these we speak of are prepared after a secret manner the mystery of which is kown but to some very few men there who make a living out of this Art of theirs by finding out the Ore for the owners This story is very strange and unlikely to be true nor could I have given any credit to it had I not read in Sebastian Munsters Cosmography that in the Silvermines in Germany the place where the Ore lies and the veins run is found by this very means of Hazle-wands And in one of the figures of his Book he gives us the picture of a fellow going along upon the hills with a forked wand or stick in his hand ad explorandum metallum Besides this I remember very well that the Necromancers have a kind of rodds called Mosaicall rodds which are nothing but Hazle-wands cut upon such a day of the week under such a constellation and perpared with abundance of ceremonies and circumstances partly Sottish partly impious the vertue whereof they say is to find out treasure hidden in the groand WILTSHIRE IN the edge of this Shire between Luckinton great Badminton the seat of my noble Lord and Master the Lord Herbert is a place called the Caves and by some the Giants caves according to the language of ignorance fear and superstition They are upon the top of a riling hill a number about 9. And some of them are or were formerly cemented with lime Some of them are deeper and some shallower some broader and longer then others They lye altogether in a row The manner of them is two long stones set upon the sides and broad stones upon the top to cover them The least of these Caves is four foot broad and some of them are nine or ten foot long This is the account which I have received from some neighbour Gentlemen touching them with which I was fain to content my self because the Earth and Rubbish is now so fallen in that without digging nothing almost can be seen but the place where they are the cavities being all filled up and bushes over growing them I presume these causes are nothing else but the tombes of so many Saxon or Danish Heroes or it may be Romans slain in a battle fought not far from the place The curiosity of some ingenious men as it is reported within these 40 years tempted them to dig into it and make a search for some Antick remains but they found nothing but an old Spur and some few other things not worth the mentioning The broadness of the stones is not at all strange since the whole Country hereabout is slatty and in many places affords stones altogether as large as these In this shire is a small Rill called Deverill which runneth a mile under ground like as also doth the little River Mole in Surrey and the river Anas in Spain and the Niger in Africk Near Warmister saith Cambden is a naturall round and high copped hill called Clay Hill Why Cambden should think this hill to be naturally so as it is I know not Sure I am there is the like round and high copped hill about a mile Southward from Aubury in this shire called Silbury-Hill in the road from Bath to Marleborough which seems not for many reasons to be natural but to have been cast up by mens hands and it is not impossible that Clay Hill may have been made by the same means At Juy-Church was in times past found a Corps 12 foot long as the tradition ruuneth and a Book of very thick Partchment all written with great Roman Letters but when the leaves were touched the mouldred to dust In the forrest of Savernac grows a kind of sweet Ferne. Sometimes there breaks out water in the manner of a sudden land flood out of certain stones that are like rocks standing aloft in open fields near the rising of the river Kenet in this shire which is reputed by the common people a fore runner of death That the sudden eruption of Springs in places where they use not always to run should be a sign of death is no wonder For these usuall eruptions which in Kent we call Nailbourns are caused by extream gluts of rain or lasting wet weather and never happen but in wet years witness the year 1648. when there were many of them In which years Wheat and most other grain thrive not well for a plain reason and therefore a dearth succeeds the year following The Country Proverb in Kent is that drought never makes a dearth Which was sufficiently verified in the years 1654 and 1655. when after that lasting drought that began in 1651 and continued till 1655. the price of Wheat desceuded to 18d the bushell and other grain proportionably And to our purpose very remarkable it was in the year 1654

again But saith Speed no man can tell whether they are produced naturally or brought thither in veins In the year 1571. Marcley hill in the East part of the shire with a roaring noise removed it self from the place where it stood and for three days together travelled from its old seat It began first to take its journey February the 17th being Saturday at six of the clock at night and by seven of the clock the next morning it had gone fourty paces carrying with it sheepe in their cotes hedge-rows and Trees whereof some were overturned and some that stood upon the plain are firmly growing upon the hill Those that were East were turned West and those in the West were set in the East In this remove it overthrew Kinnaston Chappel and turned two High-wayes near a hundred yards from their old pathes The ground that thus removed was about 26. acres which opening it selfe with Rocks and all bore the earth before it for four hundred yards space without any stay leaving Pasturage in place of the Tillage and the Tillage overspread with Pasturage Lastly overwhelming its lower parts it mounted to an hill of twelve fathoms high and there rested after three dayes travel Cambden thinks this was that kind of Earth-quake which Philosophers call Brasmatias Brecknockshire THree miles from Brecknock is a hill called Mounch-denny that hath its top above the clouds and if a cloak hat or staffe or the like be thrown from the top of it it will never fall but be blown up again nor will any thing descend but stones or metalline substance or things as heavy On the very top of the hill called Ca dier Arthur riseth a Spring which is deep like a Well and four square having no streams issuing from it and yet there are Trouts found in it Two miles East from Brecknock is a Meer called Llynsauaihan which as the people dwelling there say was once a City but the City was swallowed up by an Earthquake and this water or lake succeeded in the place They say likewise that at the end of Winter when after a long frost the ice of this lake breaks it makes a fearful noise like thunder Peradventure it is because the lake is encompassed with high steep hills which pen in in the found and multiply it or else the ground may be hollow underneath or near the lake Through this lake there runs a River called Levenny without mixture of its waters as may be perceived both by the colour of the watet and also by the quantity of it because it is no greater then when it entred the lake The non-mixture of two waters doth doubtless proceed from nothing else but the oiliness of the one and the acidity or if you will have it the acetosity of the other Water for we see that oil and vinegar will not mix Radnorshire THis Shire hath sharp and cold air because of the Snow lying long unmelted under the shady hills and hanging Rocks whereof there are many Montgomeryshire THis shire bred excellent horses in times past There is nothing else rare or observable here for our purpose Monmouthshire THis County hath good air but bad ways The two Rivers of Uske and Wye are full of Salmons and Trouts And they say that when the Salmons grow out of season in the one River they come in season in the other But in which of the two it is that Salmons are in season from September till April which is the ordinary and general time-for Salmons I cannot learn though the thing it self be averred by men of the Countrey The River Wye at Chepstow riseth every Tide to a great heigth Of the cause of it we have already said something At Lanthony Abbey saith Cambden the rain which the Mountains breed falls very often the Wind blows strong and all the Winter almost it is continually cloudy and misty yet there are seldom any diseases there and the grosser the air is the milder it is The Moor or Marsh near Chepstow suffered great loss in January 1606 For when the Severn sea saith Cambden at a spring-tide upon the Change of the Moon was partly driven back for three dayes together with a south-wind and partly with a very strong pirry from the Sea troubling it it swelled so high that it came rushing in a main upon the tract lying so low and also upon the like flats in Somersetshire over against it and overflowed all overthrowing houses and drowning cattle and some people We have already said that this flood happened when the Moon was in Perig. not that we exclude the change of the Moon and the convenient sitting of the wind to be the joint causes in the effect We onely would say that more causes greaten the effect On Gold-cliff are yellow stones of a golden colour and glittering by the reflection of the Sun-beams which hath made some suspect that there might be a mine there Merlin prophesied that when a stont Prince with a freckled face should passe over the Ford called Rydpencarn being in a River called Nantpen-carn the Welch should be subdued Which accordingly came to passe for Henry the second who passed over this Ford was freckle faced And as soon as the Welch men heard where the King came over their hearts failed them because of this prophesie and so they submitted through too much credulity saith Cambden It is not impossible that King Henry might choose to go over at this Ford because of the prophecy and his enemies credulity the more to facilitate his conquests Glamorganshire THis shire hath a temperate air and is generally the pleasantest part of all Southwales On the top of a certain hill called Minyd-morgan is a monument with a strange character which the dwellers thereabouts say if any man read the same he will dye shortly after This is not improbable for if a chid of three months old read the three first verses of Homers Illiads I am confident hee will not live three dayes to an end Upon the River Ogmore and near unto Newton in a sandy plain about one hundred paces from Severn springs a Well the water whereof is not very clear in which at full Sea in the Summer time can hardly any water be gotten but at the ebbe of the tide it bubbleth up amain In Summer time I say for in Winter the ebbing and flowing is nothing so evident because of the veins of water coming in by showers or otherwise Besides it is observed that this spring never riseth up to the brink or overfloweth Polybius saith the same of a certain Well at Cadiz Clemens Alexandrinus saith that in Britain is a Cave under the bottome of a hill and on the top of it a gaping chink And when the wind is gathered into that hole and tossed to and fro in the womb of it there is heard as it were a musicall sound like that of Cymballs It is most likely that he speaks of the Cave at Aberbarry in this shire the story agreeing very